Kyoto・京都

General wandering around town

Nishiki market・錦市場

Kawaramachi Station (Karasuma subway line)・河原町駅（地下鉄烏丸線）

You should totally do this. It’s an awesome walk through a working market selling everything from miso to spices to bowls and teacups to fish. There are a bunch of restaurants around here too. (Wikipedia)

Pontocho・先斗町

Pontocho is a narrow street that runs north-south on the west side of the Kamo river. Lined with restaurants and typical Kyoto style inuyarai. Definitely worth a visit at night. In the summer, many of the restaurants along the river attach large decks for outdoor dining in the evening. (Wikipedia)

Ne-ne no michi・ねねの道

Kawaramachi station (Tozai subway line)・河原町駅（地下鉄東西線）
Gion-shijo station (Keihan line)・祇園四条駅（京阪線）

If you do the walk through Yasaka shrine to Kiyomizu temple, wander through here on the way. It’s a touristy but fun old-school area of Kyoto. You’ll probably see a bunch of fake maiko (geisha apprentices) wandering around, but sometimes real ones too. (More info)

Shrines and temples

Wikipedia has a good overview of the best-known Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto.

Fushimi-Inari shrine・伏見稲荷大社

Fushimi Inari Station (Keihan line)・伏見稲荷駅（京阪線）

This is the well-known shrine with the thousands of red ’torii’ gates. Definitely worth a visit. It gets crowded during the day but if you go early in the morning (6:30 or even 7am), you’ll practically have the place to yourself. After the first set of gates you end up at a sort of second area with a couple little shops etc, but keep following the narrow steps up and there’s some nice hiking up higher (and it’s less crowded). (Wikipedia)

Shimogamo shrine・下鴨神社

Demachiyanagi Station (Karasuma subway line)・出町柳駅（地下鉄烏丸線）

Built in the 5th century, but there’s been stuff there since the 8th century BC. One of 17 Unesco world heritage sites in Japan. There are sometimes festivals, events, marriages, here. Fall colours should be nice too in the short walk through the forest to get there. (Wikipedia)

Kiyomizu temple・清水寺

Gojo Station (Karasuma subway line)・五条駅（地下鉄烏丸線）
Kiyomizu-gojo Station (Keihan line)・清水五条駅（京阪線）

Worth a visit even though it’ll be busy with tourists. The area around is fun too. Another Unesco world heritage site, autumn leaves are great and there’s a good view of Kyoto. Built ~1400 years ago. A couple options to get there:

  1. Start at Yasaka shrine (Tozai subway line: Sanjo station or Higashiyama station, or Keihan line: Sanjo station) wander through it, till you end up in Maruyama park. There’ll be some small ponds and a cafe or two, turn right (south) and find Ne-ne-no-michi (a kind of narrow street) and wander through the winding streets from there, and up the hill. Before you head up though consider turning north and making a quick visit to Chion-in (see below) since it’s about a 2 min walk from there.
  2. Start at Gojo-Zaka and head up this narrowish path called ‘Toribeno Sando’ through that goes past Toribeyamataishakutenotsumyo Temple and through the big spooky graveyard. Or do both – up Matsubara-dōri and down the hill. Japanese cemeteries can be pretty photogenic.

(Wikipedia)

Chion-in・知恩院

Shijo Karasuma Station (Karasuma subway line)・四条烏丸駅（地下鉄烏丸線）
Shijo Station (Keihan line)・四条駅（京阪線）
Higashiyama Station (Tozai subway line)・東山駅（地下鉄東西線）

I’m kind of embarrassed to say that it took me 33 years of visiting and living in Kyoto to actually go inside, but definitely worth a visit. Go through Yasaka Shrine to the east and when you get to Maruyama park, there’ll be a couple ponds and some shops. Turn north here and walk up the road a couple minutes till get you to a massive gate called San-mon (三問), head up the stairs and go inside. (Wikipedia)

Nanzenji・南禅寺

Keage Station (Tozai subway line)・蹴上駅（地下鉄東西線）

This is one of my personal favourite temples. There are usually not too many tourists, but if you want to check out a ‘real’ temple, it’s definitely worth a check out on a day you feel like a quiet laid back walk. Also good for fall colours, and it’s got a some neat nooks and crannies and smaller areas to explore right next door. Even though they charge ~300 yen to go up to the top of the big gate, the view is good and you can just sit down on the balcony up there and check out the view/read a book, etc. (Wikipedia)

Daitoku-ji・大徳寺

Kitaoji Station (Karasuma subway line) + 15 min walk・北大路駅（地下鉄烏丸線）

Probably the highest temple + garden density in Kyoto. (Wikipedia)

Nishi-Honganji and Higashi-Honganji・西本願寺と東本願寺

Kyoto Station・京都駅

These two temples are just a few minutes walk from Kyoto station. Both are large Buddhist temples ordered built by shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu in the late 16th/eary 17th centuries. They’re not particularly spectacular, but they are really convenient to get to if you’re downtown. If I had to pick just one to visit, I’d pick Nishi-Honganji. Wikipedia entries for Nishi-Honganji and Higashi-Honganji.

Nijo Castle (Tozai subway line: Nijojo-mae station).

Technically not a shrine or a temple, and not a big huge badass castle like Himeji or Matsumoto, but lots of artwork on ‘fusuma’ sliding screens and history stuff if you’re into that. If you’re not, then probably underwhelming. (Wikipedia)

Stores and shops

Anti-recommendations